‘But what if...?’ She hesitated before replying, like someone contemplating the wisdom of their next words, and her soft Sicilian voice was tantalisingly husky as she seemed to draw courage from somewhere deep inside her. ‘What if I don’t want anything but sex?’
It was the right answer and the wrong answer, all rolled into one. It was like starting a fire and dousing it at the same time. He stroked his finger down over her forearm and felt her shiver. ‘You’re sure you don’t have a boyfriend waiting at home?’
‘Quite sure.’
‘Or a pack of angry brothers?’ he murmured, only half joking.
She pressed her lips together. ‘I’m an only child.’
He nearly told her that he was, too, until he remembered that conversation wasn’t the reason he was here.
And that was when he kissed her, pulling her into his arms so that he could devour her lips with the hard pressure of his own. He heard her gasp. He very nearly gasped himself and he tightened his grip on her because suddenly this was a kiss like no other. Powerful. Electric. His body shuddered as she thrust her tongue into his mouth in a way which was almost primitive but also intensely erotic, as was the brush of her soft belly against him as she circled her hips. Lacing his fingers into her wet curls, he hauled her closer, kissing her for so long that eventually he felt her knees dip, as if she were about to slide to the ground. And that was when he dragged his lips away, hearing her muffled murmur of protest as he did so.
‘I want to touch you. To explore this delicious body of yours. Like this,’ he husked as he cupped one swollen breast in his palm, and she shivered convulsively. ‘Does that feel good?’
‘Yes,’ she breathed thickly.
He smiled as he peeled the sodden fabric away so that her breasts were bared and bent his lips to first one and then the other, tasting chlorine and salt as he grazed his teeth over each puckered nipple. She gasped again, her fingers curving possessively into his hair, and once again her hips moved in unspoken invitation. He felt the urgent jerk of his erection and the sudden, almost debilitating sense of lust which rushed through his body. Distractedly, he pulled his mouth away from her nipple. He wanted to do it to her here. Now. Maybe on one of those convenient loungers, or maybe in the pool itself with the cool water contrasting against their heated flesh and giving them a space-age feeling of weightlessness. But he didn’t have any protection with him and that was something which needed to be addressed, and if he went off to fetch something, mightn’t it shatter this incredibly erotic spell?
Placing his hands on her shoulders, he brushed his lips over hers. ‘I don’t think we’re being watched but you can never be too careful and I’d hate to think we were providing some voyeur with a floor show,’ he murmured. ‘So why don’t we go inside?’
Her lips trembled. ‘What about...your staff?’
‘The house is empty. I gave them the afternoon off.’
She looked as if she was about to ask why, and if she had—would he have told her that, on some subliminal level, maybe he had wanted the house empty in case of just this scenario? But she didn’t ask. Just hauled her swimsuit back in place to cover her breasts. ‘Okay,’ she said.
‘Let’s go,’ he said roughly, linking her wet fingers with his.
Lina could feel her stomach performing flip-flops as Salvatore led her back through the gardens towards the villa. She skirted a large, spiky cacti which lined the path. Now she was out of the water she could feel her skin growing dry, but the warmth of the afternoon sun was having no impact on the goose pimples icing her skin. Her throat tightened as she contemplated what she was about to do. Was she mad? Maybe. She was mad for him, that was for sure. He only had to look at her, let alone touch her, and she felt undone. He had tried to talk her out of doing this and maybe that should have been a warning, but in the end—did it really matter? He had been perfectly honest about the temporary nature of this liaison, yet strangely, she didn’t care. Wasn’t it better that way than if he’d lulled her with lies? If he’d promised to get in touch and then not bothered, wouldn’t that be even worse?
As he pushed open the door to the huge house and she followed him inside, Lina realised her conscience was clear. Because who could blame her for wanting this? Bound by a promise she’d made to her dying father, she had stayed with her mother for too long. She had lived a loveless existence for so many years, hidden away in her tiny village and feeling that life was passing her by. She’d never even felt sexual desire before, but now here was the opportunity to experience it for herself. She could find out what all the fuss was about. It wasn’t against the law, was it?
Salvatore had paused in the vaulted splendour of the panelled hall and his face was shadowed as he bent to brush his mouth over hers. ‘I’d love to give you a guided tour, but I don’t think I could give it my full attention at the moment,’ he said, the unevenness of his voice betraying an urgency he seemed to be fighting. He tilted her chin so that their eyes met. ‘So why don’t we just go upstairs? Unless you’ve changed your mind, of course?’
Lina shook her head. ‘No,’ she whispered shyly. ‘I haven’t changed my mind.’
A trace of something like darkness had crossed his features and for one awful moment Lina thought that he might be the one having second thoughts. But then his fingers tightened their grip on hers as they ascended a swooping staircase of unimaginable grandeur. Upstairs, a solid wooden door was opened by the impatient thrust of Salvatore’s foot to reveal an ancient room. But there was no time to admire the embroidered wall-hangings or the stunning views of the Sicilian countryside as the door swung shut behind them—because Salvatore was pulling her into his arms, undisguised hunger darkening his rugged features and setting up an answering clamour deep inside her. He was stroking damp curls away from her face and his eyes were blazing as he bent to claim her mouth, in a slow and drugging kiss.
And Lina’s world tilted, because it was like discovering the existence of a different dimension. She opened her mouth, her fingers kneading the silken flesh at his shoulders, and within seconds she was kissing him back with untutored fervour. For a moment he seemed content with her eagerness and inexperience, before he moved away from her, a touch of impatience darkening his voice.
‘Let’s get rid of this, shall we?’ he ground out, tugging the damp swimsuit over her body and the natural resistance of her undulating hips. ‘I want to see you naked.’
It was a masterful command and perhaps Lina should have felt shy as her costume slithered to the ground, since no man had ever seen her like this. But she didn’t. She felt strong and powerful as his gaze raked over her, because who wouldn’t feel good if a man was looking at you with that raw gleam of hunger in his eyes?
Gingerly, he removed his swim-shorts, uttering a low Sicilian curse she was surprised he knew, and Lina felt her cheeks burn as she registered the reason why such a simple manoeuvre had proved so difficult.
‘Are you blushing?’ he questioned teasingly as he walked towards her. ‘And why might that be, Signorina Vitale?’
Lina wondered what he’d say if she told him she’d never seen a naked man before, let alone one who was so obviously aroused. But if she did that then he would guess she was a virgin and she couldn’t risk that. Because she wanted this. She wanted this more than she’d ever wanted anything. She didn’t want Salvatore reeling back in horror when he realised how inexperienced she truly was. She didn’t want him doing the ‘right thing’—which she suspected he would—by snapping at her to get dressed and then sending her back to her village. She could just imagine the ride home on her little fifty cc bike, quivering with frustration and humiliation and feeling like a woman who’d been cheated just seconds away from discovering sexual pleasure for the first time in her life.
‘It was very hot out by the pool,’ she said truthfully.
‘And it’s going to get even hotter in a minute.’ He gave a low laugh of
pleasure. ‘Come here, bella.’
Without warning, he scooped his arm beneath her knees and carried her across the room before placing her beneath the embroidered canopy of the enormous bed. And with that fierce light shining from his blue eyes, Lina really did feel beautiful.
He began to stroke her, tracing erotic pathways over her naked skin—only he did it so slowly that it made her want to dissolve with pleasure. Lina swallowed. She was melting! She could feel the heat increasing and the inexorable building of fluttering excitement inside her. She writhed her hips impatiently but still he wasn’t making contact with the place where she most wanted to be touched.
‘Salvatore,’ she whispered, wanting something more without really knowing what it was.
‘Mmm?’ he murmured, his mouth grazing against her neck so that she could feel the warm fan of his breath, which echoed the rise and fall of his powerful chest. Slipping his hand between her thighs, he parted them before hovering one finger tantalisingly over the sensitive bud of her quivering heat. ‘Is this what you want?’
‘Yes.’ She closed her eyes tightly.
‘And this?’ he teased as he flicked her a touch.
‘Yes!’
His laugh was soft as he began to strum her and Lina almost shot off the bed as he established a soft rhythm. Breathless anticipation captured her in a silken snare as he lured her on towards some unimaginable peak. And suddenly she was falling. Or flying. He shattered her completely, as if he were slowly taking her apart before putting her back together again.
‘Yes,’ he breathed approvingly and she was aware that he was watching her spasming body with unashamed pleasure. ‘I knew you would be passionate from the first time I saw you.’
She thought she must have murmured his name for he gave that satisfied laugh again before reaching out to the nearby table to grab at something—which Lina quickly realised must be a condom. She kissed his bare shoulder as he moved to lie on top of her and his mouth sought hers in a way which suddenly seemed way more intimate than before.
He said: I want you so much, Lina.
He said: You feel incredible.
And Lina was so dazzled by those words of praise that she touched her fingers to his face in wonder, because even if he didn’t really mean them, couldn’t she just enjoy being made to feel gorgeous by a man who had fallen into her world like a dazzling star?
And then the fairy tale began to take on a new and unwanted direction. Was it the obvious resistance he encountered as he pushed inside her which made him grow very still? Which made his face darken with something which no longer looked like passion, but a dawning recognition? He uttered another Sicilian curse, one which might have made her blush if she’d heard it anywhere else. But Lina was too concerned about what was happening to worry about profanities. Something much more serious—mainly the very real threat that this might end before it had properly begun.
‘You’re a virgin?’ he verified.
Dumbly, she nodded.
‘Why didn’t you tell me?’
But Lina wasn’t really interested in answering his question—her body was too busy instinctively clenching around the rigid length of him as, softly, he cursed again. But this time his words seemed to lack conviction and suddenly he was moving. Moving inside her. Thrusting up deep into her body and taking on a hard rhythm which felt relentless and incredible. That amazing feeling began to build inside her again and Lina could feel control slipping away as she poised in readiness to take another heavenly flight. Or fall. But it was too late—or too early. Or something. Because Salvatore was choking out a helpless-sounding cry as he bucked within her, sweat sheening his muscular back, so that her own desire shrivelled and died. And when he’d finished there was nothing but the sound of their ragged breathing, which seemed to echo discordantly around the vast room.
CHAPTER FOUR
AT FIRST LINA thought she was alone, mostly because it was quiet. Unbelievably quiet—save for the tweeting of some distant bird. She opened her eyes, aware of nothing other than the tangle of fine sheets and an unfamiliar aching deep in her body. She stretched luxuriously, caught in the dreamy world halfway between sleeping and waking, as fragments of memory came filtering back into her mind. And then she saw Salvatore, silhouetted against the morning sun, which was streaming in through the un-shuttered window beside which he stood. Dark and forbidding and sexy as hell.
And fully dressed.
Now the memory became a sensual stream as she remembered the way it had felt to have him deep inside her. Making her cry out with ecstasy time after time, so that he’d had to kiss her quiet until her body had recovered from that sweet, slow shudder which made everything else seem so insignificant.
Had he heard her stir? Was that why he turned to look at her? She felt her heart turn over as she remembered that time in the middle of the night, when they’d been dissolved by passion and she had felt so close to him. When she had snuggled up against his chest and he’d been stroking his fingers through her hair, and she had confided in him all her dreams that one day she might be able to break away from her mother and make something of herself.
‘You’re awake,’ he observed.
‘I am,’ she said, trying to keep her voice steady. As though what had happened hadn’t been a big deal. And it wasn’t, she told herself fiercely. She’d lost her virginity, that was all. She’d spent her adult life wondering whether she’d ever meet anyone who could stir her to the kind of passion she’d only ever read about and now she had. That could be regarded as a positive—just so long as she didn’t start having unrealistic expectations about what was going to happen next.
It was a one-night stand, she reminded herself. It was never intended to be anything else. And she would be crazy if she ever thought any differently about it.
She smiled. ‘You look like you have places to go, things to do—so please don’t let me stop you if you need to be somewhere else.’
Salvatore met her eyes, uncharacteristically unsure of how to respond to her words as a rush of conflicting feelings washed through him. He wanted to tell her, yes, he had to be somewhere else. Somewhere as far away from here—and her—as possible. But that would be tantamount to running away. It would be the action of a coward and he was no coward, even though his head was all over the place this morning. Because Lina had been a virgin—something he had suspected even though he’d done a brilliant job of pushing that possibility to the back of his mind. Yet despite her inexperience, she had provoked a seemingly insatiable hunger in him. At times during the night it had felt as if she had cast a spell on him, without his permission. He liked control in the bedroom—as in every other area of his life—and this unsophisticated village girl had temporarily robbed him of that control.
And he didn’t like it.
He didn’t like it one bit.
‘Are you okay?’ he questioned.
‘I’m fine.’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t understand,’ he breathed, genuinely perplexed. ‘Why give me your virginity, Lina? A man you barely know.’
She sat up in bed then and the sheet slipped to her waist, so that it bared her breasts. Dark curls were tumbling in profusion over rosy-tipped nipples and Salvatore felt the betraying stir of his body.
‘I didn’t give my virginity to you,’ she corrected. ‘Just like you didn’t take it from me. It’s natural. It’s the way of the world and it happens all the time.’
‘But clearly not to you. And I fear you may have squandered it with a man like me, who was seeking nothing more than a swift liaison. A pleasant diversion at the end of a tough couple of days.’ He sighed, wondering why, after that first time, he hadn’t done what he should have done and sent her back to her little village. Driven her back in the fading light after she’d freshened up and eradicated the evocative scent of his sex from her skin. Yet she had looked at him with those wide bourbon eyes and he h
ad felt all his resolve slipping away.
‘I don’t want to go. I want you to teach me,’ she had whispered.
‘Teach you what?’ he remembered whispering back, even though the silken caress of her fingers around the hard jerk of his erection had told him exactly what form her proposed lessons should take.
‘About pleasure,’ she’d purred.
And he had. God forgive him, but he’d done exactly that. Maybe it had been the heady combination of innocence and appetite which had completely blown his mind. Or the fact that she’d been so eager to learn the things which pleased him. Whatever the reason, he had been suckered in—losing himself in her amazing body, over and over again—until the rose and saffron light of dawn had begun to glimmer on the horizon.
He looked across the room at her as she sat framed against the white pillows, like some fallen Madonna. Her blue-black curls were wild and a rosy flush emphasised the angled slant of her cheekbones and suddenly he wanted her all over again. ‘Won’t anyone notice that you’ve gone?’ he questioned as, abruptly, he moved a little further away from the temptation of the bed. ‘Won’t they care that you didn’t bother going home last night?’
She shook her head. ‘I’m safe. I sent a text to my friend Rosa in the neighbouring village, asking her to cover for me if my mother rang up.’
‘Well, you’d better go and shower. Maybe do something with your hair,’ he offered critically. ‘And then I’ll arrange to have your scooter loaded up onto one of the trucks. I can drop you off on the outskirts of your village so you don’t have to drive the whole way back.’
‘No, really. There’s no need. I’m perfectly capable of making my own way home.’
His eyes narrowed, as if he was unused to having his wishes overturned, and Lina managed a thin smile as she pushed aside the rumpled sheets and got out of bed. But her bravado only lasted as long as it took her to get to the bathroom, where she leaned against the door, her heart thumping as she thought: What have I done? She stood beneath a terrifyingly efficient shower while powerful jets of water briefly lessened the aching of her body, but nothing could eradicate the painful clench of her heart as she realised that last night hadn’t been as straightforward as she had imagined. It was supposed to be about sex and only sex. So why had it felt like something more? Why, when Salvatore had kissed her and stroked and caressed her, had she felt more cherished than she’d ever done before? And it was dangerous to feel that way. She knew that. He’d spelt out word by brutal word that he wasn’t looking for anything more.
Cinderella In The Sicilian's World (HQR Presents) Page 4